Greece's spectacular start proves doubters wrong

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Congratulations to Ian Thorpe on being our first Olympic gold medallist of the 21st century.

Peter Fitzgerald, North Parramatta, August 14.

Onya, Athens.

Tony Turner, Tuross Head, August 15.

Finally, the Games have begun. And Channel 7's coverage: four-minute intro followed by a cross to the women's basketball for three minutes, followed by an ad break and then back for another intro, with Olympic news showing Channel 7's highlights. Then another three minutes of basketball followed by more ads, this time with Channel 7 promos and ads. So far, it looks like about 35 per cent of each hour will be about the sport, the rest on promos and ads. Thank heavens for ABC Radio.

Peter Friend, Heathcote, August 14.

Good on the Greeks. What a fantastic opening ceremony. Shame on the Australian media that continually tried to put them down. They have proved the doomsayers wrong.

We in Sydney had a fantastic Games. We showed the world how to conduct such Games. But that, or anything else we do, does not give us the right to be petty-minded, or to adopt a closed-world, holier-than-thou attitude.

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Best wishes to all athletes. May the best win.

Hemant Nitturkar, Berowra, August 14.

Let's not gush, and be honest. The opening ceremony looked like a Rock Eisteddfod semi-final.

Craig Moore, Annandale, August 14.

I was gobsmacked by Sydney's opening ceremony - and I had a hard time believing it could be topped. However, Athens has managed it. Kudos to them. And kudos to Andrew Walsh and the other Australians involved, too ("The Games come home", Herald, August 14-15).

Let's be big enough as a nation to admit that the Athens opening ceremony has achieved the unthinkable and surpassed even Sydney's excellent effort. Well done, Athens.

Jon Seymour, Pyrmont, August 14.

Congratulations to those responsible for designing the wonderful Australian uniform worn at the opening ceremony. They looked sensational and they were very sensitive in the colour. The best Australian uniform ever.

Ian McAlpin, Ryde, August 14.

Clive McLellan (Letters, August 14-15) wonders why French is still one of the Games's official languages. There are numerous reasons, Clive, most of which revolve around inclusiveness.

French is not only the native language of 75 million Europeans and some Canadians, it's the lingua franca of about half of Africa, much of the Caribbean, all of Indo-China and a swathe of the Pacific. It's an official language in countries with a total population of more than 300 million. After English, it's one of the most frequently learnt second languages in the world.

But that's not all. It's also about respect - for that nice Baron de Coubertin chappie, without whom you wouldn't be watching the Olympics at all.

As for the boring trilingual announcements, do try to relax and enjoy the show. The announcements in Barcelona 1992 were quadrilingual, and the world didn't fall apart then.

Steve Corneliusm, Fairlight, August 14.

Your headline ("The Games could do without the French dressing", Herald, August 14-15) is offensive, encouraging your readers to pursue in their anti-French mood, when it is a famous Frenchman who recreated the Games in Athens in 1896, Pierre de Coubertin. The use of French belongs to de Coubertin's legacy. Without de Coubertin, we would not have had the Games in Athens in 1896. This Frenchman spent all his fortune to "recreate" the modern Games. Long life to the memory of Coubertin. Vive les Jeux Olympiques d'Athenes 2004 (Long life to the Olympic Games from Athens 2004 onwards).

With the Athens Olympics in full swing, the memory of the Sydney Olympics that I cherish the most was that the trains ran on time. For two weeks we had a train service that worked. Where did we go wrong?

Robert Pallister, Punchbowl, August 14.

Here's to two weeks of dollar-driven, drug-enhanced, mind-numbing Games.

Geoff Whiteman, Laurieton, August 14.

Downer, the unguided missile, deserves a rocket

Alexander Downer has just made the public statement that North Korea could launch a ballistic missile strike against Sydney ("Downer launches own missile on eve of visit to North Korea", Herald, August 14-15).

Mr Downer, I challenge you to offer the evidence to support this statement or offer your unreserved apology for causing me and many Australians unneccessary grief and concern with your scare-mongering.

Susan McKay, Carnegie, August 14.

Does Alexander Downer's claim that North Korea could launch a ballistic missile to hit Sydney make him a loose cannon?

Pierre du Parte, Worrigee, August 14.

While desperately intent on proving that his ham-fisted management of our relations with Spain, the Philippines and the rest of the world outside Washington have not reached their nadir, our Foreign Minister has succeeded only in demonstrating how captive our foreign policy has become to the wildest fantasies of the Bush Administration. Such hysterical behaviour would be laughable if not for the singular damage it is causing to our country's international standing.

John Richardson, St Ives, August 14.

Mr Downer, who has gone to North Korea, has worked out how to make a 4000-kilometre warhead travel 10,000 kilometres instead and reach Sydney. All it takes is a little hot air.

Barrie Smillie, Duffy (ACT), August 14.

It was the Foreign Minister's duty to warn Sydney of the threat posed to it by North Korea. Although Pyongyang is 10,000 kilometres from Sydney and rocket experts say that the best conceivable North Korean missile has a range of only 4000 kilometres, consider this: with overnight stopovers for service and refuelling in Manila and Darwin, a North Korean rocket could hit Sydney a mere three days after launching. Mr Downer's duty has been definitely and decisively done.

Ian MacDougall, Farrer (ACT), August 14.

The Foreign Minister's claim that North Korea could launch a ballistic missile to hit Sydney must be taken seriously no matter what the experts say. After all, Australia is about to launch its own at North Korea - Alexander Downer. The casualties will be enormous. At no time in human history will so many have died laughing.

Richard Makarewicz, Lennox Head, August 14.

Polling day will be judgement day

Ross Cameron deserves nothing less than a resounding rebuke at the next federal election following his disgraceful duplicity, perpetrated not only on his wife, but just as importantly, on the public ("The right thing", Good Weekend, August 14-15).

Mr Cameron invites us to hand down our judgement upon him at the polling booth. Our politicians will only learn that there is no "one rule for them and another for us" when the Australian public sends the message via the electoral poll.

Glenn Buesnel-May, Tarneit (Vic), August 15.

Well, it's good to know that only family men with Christian values have affairs. We know this because that is all we ever read about in the press. Obviously, this is not the case. The lesson to all politicians is quite clear: don't stand for any principles or you will become a target.

I don't expect the Herald will be asking all politicians about their private lives as they did with Ross Cameron. I expect this attention will be restricted to the too few who stand for values.

Mr Cameron has a flawed character but supports good values. The question for voters is do we support flawed politicians who promote values or do we support flawed politicians who oppose values. It's a no-brainer.

Michael Thomas, Bella Vista, August 15.

John Howard recently pushed through legislation to ban gay people from marriage, citing so-called family values. Are these the values of people like the federal MP Ross Cameron, about whom we find the Prime Minister oddly quiet?

Andrew Melvin, Sydney, August 15.

Rank hypocrisy, Mr Cameron, rank hypocrisy.

Kurt Andersson-Noorgard, Sydney, August 15.

Freight profits

In response to the Herald's editorial (August 14-15), the shortage of train drivers on Sydney's rail network might be explained by the fact that freight traffic, at least on the Sydney-Melbourne line through the Southern Highlands, has increased four-fold over the past couple of years.

Sydneysiders angered by curtailed weekend timetables and poor weekday services should be asking from where the extra drivers on these doubtless lucrative freight services have come.

David Haines, Exeter, August 15.

No good reason

How I despair. I work in the public education system and am passionate to see it work. My children are enrolled in the public education system and are thriving despite the Government funding disparity. The Herald ("Religion and tradition split loyalties on both sides of the political divide", August 13) then tells me the head of the Department of Education has his children in private schooling.

Religion, tradition, location and ideology are the reasons given for choosing public or private schools. To all leaders in public education: how about if you are committed to see something work, and you are hoping to lead people to show commitment and dedication, you show some of those qualities by having faith in the system you work in. I think I'm going Green with rage.

Scott Warnes, Suffolk Park, August 14.

Americans in a corner

One couldn't write a better summary of the behaviour of the United States than the article by Adele Horin ("800 years of freedom sunk in Guantanamo Bay", Herald, August 14-15). Any clear thinking American should realise that George Bush has painted them into a corner and has tried to rewrite international law with phrases like "enemy combatants".

The US should sensibly release all the prisoners, pay them for their incarceration because they will eventually be sued and add this to their growing list of other political misjudgements, along with Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and the Iraq invasion.

Rhys Williams, Kaleen (ACT), August 15.

A backward ban

The bipartisan support in the Senate for the passage of the Government's new legislation banning same-sex couples from marriage ("Outrage at rushed terrorism and gay marriage laws", Herald, August 14-15) amounts to a gross act of human discrimination stemming from Australia's majority heterosexual community. It disregards the fact that community standards on gender equality have already brought significant change to the wording of the marriage rite used in Christian churches throughout the world so that what a man vows to a woman is now identical to what a woman vows to a man.

But by stopping short of recognising same-sex marriage, Australian churches have in effect given their implicit endorsement to the Government's new legislation, making them complicit in ensuring that one of the most enduring prejudices in human civilisation will continue to treat homosexual people as a persecuted minority.

Reverend Vincent Zankin, Rivett (ACT), August 15.

The gay marriage ban is a giant leap backward for Australia. It is unconscionable to legislate a removal of rights or civil liberties from a class or group. Popular opinion on the topic, pro or con, has little to do with whether it is just to remove a particular group's human rights. Rights should be restricted only when their exercise infringes on the rights of others. Gay marriage hurts no one.

Brian Stokes, Round Corner, August 14.

Under the new legislation, if you're gay it's not illegal to have sex but it is illegal to get married. So you can only have sex outside of marriage. I remember when those espousing so called "family values" used to preach against sex outside marriage. Now they're enforcing it.

A snog in the back row

I disagree with Elizabeth Zanetti (Letters, August 14-15). I abhor people breaching copyright, and while I agree that cinemas overcharge, if I do not want to see the film that much, I will wait until it comes out on DVD. Why not have cinema attendants with night-vision goggles to ensure that nobody is breaching copyright laws? I have been in cinemas and had intimate moments, and if I didn't want them to be seen, I would do them in the privacy of my home. Realistically, what are cinema attendants going to perve at? A quick snog and a cuddle on the back row?

Kate Walsh, Summer Hill, August 14.

Stock footage so tired

While we're at it, Abdul Hamid Saad (Letters, August 11), perhaps we could ask why every medical research story includes the obligatory footage of someone holding a multi-tubed squirty thing, either adding to or removing coloured liquid from a tray full of small containers. Is the procedure really an integral part of every scientific experiment?

Rosemary Swift, Enmore, August 13.

High price for patriotism

In preparation for standing as an independent candidate at the next federal election, I approached the British High Commission with a view to resigning the British half of my dual citizenship. I was amazed by the response. We will send you a form (not surprising); you must return it with a payment of $315 (surprising); and it will take us up to six months to process (extraordinary).

It's not as if one is seeking to impose any burden on the British or potentially threaten their security; quite the reverse. Result: this Australian citizen is precluded by British bureaucracy and fees from standing as a candidate in an Australian election.

Ross Venner, West Ryde, August 13.

Signing away the future

John and Mark: my children, and their children, and their children and ... will not thank you for signing away our sovereignty for a few pieces of silver ("Free trade bill passed, but last hurdle looms", Herald, August 14-15).

Bruce Tulloch, Cammeray, August 14.

A pertinent question has been put by Henry Wardlaw (Letters, August 14-15): what are we poor sods to do, who are left to suffer the consequences of free trade? Maybe, provided Government does not increase GST on us poor sods, we might enjoy lower prices on imported goods and services that Australian trade unions price out of the market. What are we to do? Choose the right Government.

David Curtis, Merrylands, August 14.

Think outside the square

I'm inclined to think that moving to where one expects hardship and loneliness because it is worth the sacrifice for your career is quite precious ( "For Mosman expat, every week is bush week", Herald, August 14-15). Perhaps if we surrender some of the time spent on our careers, we'll find that most corners of the world have so much to offer people who stop to look, listen and feel. Even Sydney.

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